What insurance do I need for a trucking company?

A trucking company’s insurance has an unusual property: part of it is filed with a federal agency, and your authority to operate switches off without it. Understanding which pieces are federally filed, which are contractually demanded, and which are ordinary business insurance is most of the answer.

The filings that activate authority

When you apply for for-hire operating authority, FMCSA publishes the application in its Register — and the clock starts. Evidence of financial responsibility must be filed within 90 days of publication, and it isn’t you who files it:

• BMC-91 or BMC-91X — the public liability filing, submitted electronically to FMCSA by your insurance company, certifying you carry at least the federal minimums for bodily injury and property damage.
• BOC-3 — designation of process agents (people who can accept legal papers for you in each state), filed at registration.
• BMC-34 or BMC-83 — cargo liability filing, required only for household goods carriers.

The MCS-90 is the piece owners confuse with all of the above: it’s an endorsement attached to the liability policy itself, guaranteeing that the public gets paid up to the federal minimums. Your insurer files the BMC-91; the MCS-90 rides on the policy. Federal rules also require 35 days’ written notice to cancel these policies — which is why lapses surface fast and authority is revoked behind them.

The federal liability minimums

These are floors from the regulation, unchanged in decades. The freight market’s working number is $1,000,000 auto liability — most brokers and shippers require it by contract regardless of what the schedule permits.

What FMCSA doesn’t require

The list of things not federally required surprises new carriers more than the list of things required:

• Cargo insurance — no federal requirement for general freight (the requirement survives only for household goods). Brokers require it in every packet, so you’ll carry it anyway. See motor truck cargo insurance.
• Physical damage — a lender requirement, not a regulatory one.
• General liability — demanded by shippers, warehouses, and ports for non-driving exposures; not part of the federal filing.
• Workers’ compensation — state law, and driver class codes are expensive enough that misclassification triggers audits.

The pattern: the regulation activates your authority; the broker packet and your contracts set the coverage you actually run with. Certificates naming brokers and shippers, with the limits they demand, are the day-to-day compliance work — the same mechanics as any certificate of insurance demand.

A decision path

1. Interstate for-hire → operating authority → insurer files BMC-91/91X, you file BOC-3, within 90 days of your application publishing.
2. Set auto liability at the higher of the federal minimum for your freight and what your brokers demand — in practice, $1,000,000.
3. Quote cargo to the packet minimums for your commodities.
4. Physical damage at real equipment values; add trailer interchange or non-owned trailer coverage if you pull others’ boxes.
5. Employees → state workers’ comp; premises and loading exposures → GL.

Questions carriers actually ask

What are the motor carrier insurance requirements? Federally: the liability minimums above, filed via BMC-91/91X, plus BOC-3 — and cargo filings only for household goods. Contractually: whatever your shippers and brokers demand, which is more.

What are semi truck insurance requirements? The same schedule — the $750,000/$1M/$5M tiers key off freight type and weight rating, not tractor configuration.

Do truckers have insurance? For-hire interstate carriers must — the authority literally deactivates without an active liability filing, and the MCS-90 guarantees the public is paid up to the federal minimum even when a policy exclusion would otherwise apply between insurer and carrier.

Do I need all of this for intrastate-only trucking? The federal filings generally don’t apply; your state’s commercial vehicle liability minimums and registration rules do. The contract-driven parts — cargo, certificates, $1M liability — look the same everywhere.

Sources are linked below. Every dollar figure above is a regulatory minimum cited to the regulation — market-standard limits are labeled as such.